Medical Equipment Preparers in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,381
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$5,579
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,389
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$35,960
Kept after tax
$30,381
Worth in national money
$34,389
State rank
49
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Louisiana pays medical equipment preparers a middle wage of $35,960, 49 of 51 states and about 24.61% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Louisiana this is lower-paid work. Of 484 occupations the state publishes figures for, medical equipment preparers ranks 398. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $35,960 you keep $30,381 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,389 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $37,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- Louisiana's $35,960 median for medical equipment preparers places it 49 of 51 states, about 24.61% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Louisiana reports, medical equipment preparers ranks 398 of 484, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Louisiana is $30,381 after the full tax stack, from $35,960. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,389 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $37,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Medical Equipment Preparers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,440 |
| This salary | $35,960 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Louisiana | $30,381 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,074 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,412 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $35,098 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,917 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Louisiana earn less than $35,960. The published range is $27,880 up to $50,440, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $30,381 take-home in Louisiana comes from $35,960. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 398 of 484.
- Two cautions on $34,389, the adjusted value of that $35,960 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 398 of 484 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for medical equipment preparers in Louisiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $27,880 to $50,440. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $30,381, from $35,960, assumes a single Louisiana filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 398 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 49 of 51 for it.
- This $34,389 adjusted figure, worked from $35,960, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 398 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 398 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $37,710, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $27,880 and the top tenth $50,440, so most people doing this work in Louisiana sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Louisiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $34,389 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Louisiana then takes its own share, leaving $30,381.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Louisiana is $37,710. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($27,880 to $50,440) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $34,389 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $30,381 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.